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Vivian Lewis is editor and founder of Global-Investing.com, the daily blog newsletter for Americans and others seeking to internationalize their portfolios. She brings unique experience and competence to the business of picking foreign stocks.Read More >>

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About Global Investing

Vivian Lewis is editor and founder of Global-Investing.com, the daily blog newsletter for Americans and others seeking to internationalize their portfolios. She brings unique experience and competence to the business of picking foreign stocks. After graduating from Harvard magna cum laude (and being elected to Phi Beta Kappa), Vivian lived 18 years in Europe where she worked as a financial journalist. Back in the U.S. in 1989, she decided that retail investors managing their own portfolios deserved the kind of information she had been digging up for mutual fund and pension fund managers. So she started Global Investing, now 21 years old. It began with the rise of the American Depositary Receipt market, where now some 2,500 shares can be bought. We also cover Canadian stocks (which are not ADRs).

Later she started globalinvestingpro, which has now been incorporated into the main global investing newsletter, mainly because the number of unsponsored ADRs has grown rapidly since late 2008. It was initially intended for investors able to purchase directly on foreign markets.

Apart from ADRs, Global Investing also covers yield instruments like yankee bonds and foreign preferred stocks. And for start-up global investors, we recommend closed-end and exchange-traded funds which invest outside the U.S. Funds offer instant diversification at lower cost than individual stocks.

However with discount brokerages on the Internet, you can build a global portfolio with as little as $25,000 to start.

Vivian brings to the readership her familiarity with foreign markets, a full rolodex of contacts garnered during 18 years of living abroad, and the ability to speak a half-dozen languages. She has a team of free-lance reporters who help her cover foreign countries.

When we publish a trading alert we tell you which portfolio the sale or purchase is meant for. The alert usually is published after the newsletter issue with the write-up the stock. That is because I do not trade until the issue has gone out, and I do not know the price we got or paid until then, to not front-run the readers.

There are four portfolios: yield, buy and hold, speculative (all stocks and bonds) and the starter portfolio for those with small amounts invested who need instant diversification. They are advised to buy closed-end or exchange-traded funds which are also divided between yield and growth; we do not cover open-end mutual funds

We try to keep the number of positions limited.

Half our recommendations typically are pink sheet-traded. That sounds scary but in fact these shares trade in heavy volumes every day on the foreign market where the stock is based. Bonds, including our Yankee bonds, even if formally listed, trade over the counter too. And even NYSE-listed foreign preferred stocks are not always very liquid. Because we target our service to retail investors most buying in modest amounts we can cover the nooks and crannies of the OTC market and not create waves of buy or sell orders which would increase the costs of trading.

From a grateful reader:

Dear Vivian,
Here are some of the things that my stock proceeds will be used for (first home run since New Tel and that required exquisite timing by you):
Help son no. 1 one get econ Ph.D.
Help son no. 2 with Italian major at Yale
Help with melanoma detection and spider bite detection research between grants.
Grazie mille per il suo aiuto

What the financial press says about us:
Investment Digest (Canada), Sept. 12, 2014
headline: Positives for BNS Are Global In Nature
"From the global perspective of editor Vivian Lewis, the Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS-TSX $72.35) offers a way to leverage Canada and its "serious regulatory system" for investing in Latin American banking. Scotiabank, she points out, is expanding its global presence and cross-selling in a number of areas, including trade finance, global payments and transactions for business, primary banking, and wealth management.
"Among the results included in the bank's recently reported third quarter, international net income from the Caribbean, Latin America, and Asia climbed 3 percent over the same period last year. This was due mainly to higher lending (up 11 percent) and deposits (12 percent.)
"In addition, income generated by Scotiabank's ancillary global wealth management and insurance business is "growing by leaps and bounds" when compared with the previous quarter and last's year's third quarter: C$a846 mn vs 345 mn in the second quarter and $310 million a year earlier.
"This was despite the sale of Scotiabank's stake in CI Financial Group.l Global banking net was up 8 percent year-over-year, but was "nipped by higher expenses, mainly for performance-linked compensation to the bankers and tech investment." Indeed, the positives for BNS are mostly global in nature as profits in the Canadaian side of the business were 'essentially flat.'
"The bank's operations in Canada did get a boost from higher credit ared and car loands, but these gains were offset by other factors including"lower reversals of provisions on commercial and retail loans reflecting higher loss rates." In a nutshell, Canadian 'expenses grew faster than business.'"

(This venerable Canadian stock bi-weekly gets research from all the brokerages in Canada and when it opts to use work from Global-Investing.com from south of the border, this counts as a serious valuation of our work. The above quotation from it, authorized by MPL Communications Inc of Toronto, is from a 5-time winner of the US Newsletter Publisher's Foundation Prize as World's Best Investment Advisor.)

Vivian Lewis comments at least one time per day and you can follow some of her comments prior to subscribing at http://global-investing.com
Overall Rating 55555
Performance of Picks/Advice 44444
Consistency 55555
Interesting to Read/Educational 55555
Customer Service 55555
Value for the Money 44444

Posted by John M on Nov 7, 2013
I took advantage of a trial membership and have completed it with the intention of signing on for a year. I have been enticed by Vivian’s colorful style, which is a framework for solid facts from around the world… stories, politics, and an eclectic array of stock opinions, most of which are fed by her network of friends and associates derived from her own travels and experience.
I like a newsletter that reads like a compelling conversation at dinner… laced with both facts and color. She has a sense of history of the investments and like any investor letter is not always a perfect prognosticator, but at least presents a case or basis for her opinions derived from more than one point of view or dogma: sometimes technical, sometimes value, sometimes timing, sometimes high risk/reward.

I have acted on two recommendations that resonated with me and they have paid sufficiently to merit the new subscription. I intend to subscribe through the normal channel.

I had trouble finding her Low-Cost portfolio, but did find the variety of portfolios valuable and interesting to monitor. She offers a little free teaser at the beginning of each letter.. . then the real meaty content is for members only.
I carry less than a handful of paid subscriptions at any time, but am looking forward to continuing with Global Investing. All in all… a winner.

Vivian Lewis is a world traveler that does a good job of locating interesting investment options. She has many expert international contacts. Her picks are unique and off the beaten path. Many investment letters have very similar styles, themes and picks. By subscribing to the Global Investing newsletter you will get something different, intriguing foreign picks. Vivian is a good writer and her writing style is fun to read. I invested in 2 of her picks and they were all in the money at the time of this review. Definitely check out her website http://www.global-investing.com/. The introductions to her blog postings are free and give you a flavor for the full content that is available for subscribers.

Sign up to Global Investing on the Internet for a day, a quarter, or a year to test it out. Or sign up FREE for a daily blog with information on global markets, which is free but without our stock picks. We charge for the stock picks because they make money for our subscribers.